The book I chose for my first quarter independent reading project is Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card. It is the conclusion to the Ender’s Game series, which I began in the eighth grade. I was about to read the novel anyway, so when I heard about the independent reading project I immediately made up my mind.
Genre Classification The book I chose may fit into two genres. It may fit in juvenile fiction (or young adult fiction) or it may fit in science fiction. In order for a story to be science fiction it must take place in the future. And this book is science fiction because the book contains futuristic themes; such as alien worlds, alien species, space travel and futuristic technology. But most important of all, this story is dated in the future, which undoubtedly certifies its classification in the science fiction genre. According to the book, the setting of this book takes place over three thousand years in the future. It may also be young adult fiction because the story was written for a young adult audience. This book’s series was originally marketed for young adults when in Ender’s Game, the first book of the series, the main character was just a child. So this would, by definition, make it a young adult fiction novel. Now, Ender grows old and dies in the book, but his children are now young and healthy and taking the spotlight in the story. And because most of the main characters are now either adolescents or young adults, many adolescents would presumably read this book.
Plot Summary Starways Congress has sent a fleet to the Portuguese-inhabited planet Lusitania. This fleet, the Lusitania fleet, contains a bomb that will destroy the planet altogether. This Bomb is called the M.D. Device. They sent it because the alien biologists (xenologers) on Lusitania have been teaching the pequeninos, the native inhabitants of the alien world, to use human technology. This was an act of treason, for when the world was colonized, they restricted all contact with the aliens in order to prevent interference with pequenino culture. However, Lusitania contains a deadly virus that adapts to the cures that the biologists try to attack it with by thinking and communicating with the other virus cells of its kind. And worst of all, they cannot kill the virus completely, because the virus is essential for the pequeninos to survive. Therefore, the rebels on Lusitania cannot be prosecuted without spreading the descolada virus to the rest of Congress’ intergalactic empire, the Hundred Worlds. And because the Hundred Worlds controls Lusitania via the ansible communication system, the only way for the Hundred Worlds to lose its grip on Lusitania is if they cut off the ansible. As the Fleet makes its progress toward Lusitania, the biologists design a permanent cure that disables the descolada’s ability to evolve and communicate with itself. But they don’t have the ingredients on their planet, so they are not able to make it. Next, they use Jane’s power to move them outside of reality so that the biologist may use the design in her head to create the antidote. Miro and Val, while are trying to find habitable worlds for the pequeninos and the buggers to live in, discover the sentient species that created the descolada and seeded it upon planet Lusitania. How do they know the virus was artificial? Throughout their careers, the xenologers have tried to figure out why there were so few variations of species on Lusitania. There are bird-like species, sheep-like species, grass and trees, but the virus allows no subspecies and evolution among the planet, which is why it attacked the humans as soon as they colonized on Lusitania. The answer soon became clear: the descolada was a terraforming project for an alien species. And when they found they found the descoladores, they could not communicate with them. In addition to those issues, there are still other conflicts in the book. Starways Congress has found Jane hidden within the ansibles, and regards her as a computer virus and a threat to the Hundred Worlds. Therefore, Congress has ordered all planets to turn shut down their ansibles one by one and turn them back on again, in hopes that the ansibles come out virus-free. And as each world shuts down their ansible, Jane loses a portion of processing power available to her. Soon she will lose the power to teleport starships from world to world. Meanwhile, Peter and Wang-mu use what’s left of Jane’s power to stop the order to kill Jane and the order to blow up Lusitania. And if Jane dies, none of them may be able to get back home.
Characters in the Book Peter – Peter Wiggin in the story comes from Ender’s fear, when Jane moves him Outside reality and back Inside in order to create the cure for the “descolada” virus living on Lusitania, the world they are trying to save. He appears as an adolescent about sixteen years old. The original Peter Wiggin, who has been dead for three thousand years, harassed and haunted Ender as a small child when they were brothers. Thus, Ender’s soul was forever tied to memories of his older brother, Peter. Therefore, Ender conjures up his older brother exactly as he’s been forever imagining him to be: ambitious and evil. And in doing so, he takes a large portion of his soul and unconsciously gives it to this physically young, healthy alter ego of himself. The details on why Peter appeared from Outside is still a mystery, but there is no doubt on where he came from. Peter ends up having a very important role in the story. Peter makes the decision use Jane’s instantaneous space travel to influence Congress’ decision to destroy Lusitania. He visits a Chinese planet, a Japanese planet, and a Samoan-colonized planet in order to find his answers. And in doing so, they learn their cultures, beliefs, and philosophies so that they can persuade them to use their political status to alter the annihilation of Lusitania. On planet Future Dreaming, Malu tells Peter, “the art of your light that is most savage and strong and selfish burns in you, while the part that is most gentle and loving and which twines with others most powerfully, that is in her…if her part of light went into your vessel, it would soften and gentle you, it would tame you and make you whole. Thus it is good for you if you are the one who becomes whole, leaving the other vessel empty for the god [Jane]” Here he plots the location in which each part of the soul must go in order to save Jane and make Peter whole. Jane must be one with Val’s body while Val and Ender must be one with Peter’s.
Jane – Jane comes from the super-intelligence of the ansible networks that the humans use to communicate with each other instantaneously throughout worlds. By harnessing a computer program the buggers made that responds to actions and makes its own decisions, Jane evolved into an abstract life form capable of deliberately making its own choices and sensing human emotions. Jane is vital to the alteration of the Lusitania Fleet. Her processing power grows stronger the more ansible networks she is connected to. And she ultimately gains the power to be an anchor for starships to move outside the universe, and then back in. Using this power, she helps Peter and his friend Wang-Mu move from world to world to stop the Lusitania Fleet. “Then she [Jane] moves everything from the real world to a place of nothingness, which takes no time at all, and then brings it back to reality in whatever place she chooses.”
Ender – Ender Wiggin has been the main character of the series up until this book. Now his two alter egos must take his place as the hero. His soul has been shared to Peter and Valentine; the personalities of his brother and sister from his memory are opposite from each other, in which Ender is directly in between their two qualities. And though he still has his own body and soul intact, the tiny portion of his soul cannot support the body he is currently in. His soul is also vital in order for Jane to instantaneously transport starships. There must be a part of it to support Jane to move these ships, so he, Peter, or Val must be inside the ship for it to be transported. And as Jane dies, she loses the power to transport these ships. Therefore, she needs a body to hold her until the ansible networks turn on again. “Am I the sum of my two siblings, or am I the difference between them?”
Themes and Big Ideas Many themes and big ideas can be found in the book Children of the Mind. Probably the most important idea is the idea of a soul or life force. In the book, this is called an aiúa. Outside the universe, Card explains, there are an infinite number of aiúas waiting to be created into something. This is why when Ender is taken Outside, his aiúa is split into three different bodies; his life has been centered on the fact that his brother, Peter, represents the savage, evil part of his aiúa, and his sister, Valentine, represents the caring, loving part of his aiúa. The characters know very little about this concept, but they make lots of guesses and experiments based on what they understand about these aiúas, which is virtually nothing. And (uncannily) most of them end up as expected. For example, Jane’s aiúa moves to Val’s body, as planned, Peter’s body now consists of Ender’s full aiúa, also as planned, and Jane returns to the ansible networks once they are back online. And although Peter does not understand how to consciously harness Ender’s memories hidden inside his aiúa, Peter is still as intelligent as Ender was and has the same philosophies Ender always had. Another big theme in the story Card teaches the reader is hospitality toward strangers who may or may not be capable of communication. Congress regards the Lusitanians as rebels to the Hundred Worlds because they refuse to understand them. Ender wrote his book The Hive Queen in order to get the humans to reconsider the joy of his bugger extermination. This was an important theme throughout the story, as was the understanding of the aiúa.
One Major Conflict in the Story One major conflict in the story is near the end when Peter, whose soul is now joined with Ender and Val, comes to help Miro, Jane, and the xenologers, Ela, Ouanda, and Quara, on solving the descoladore language. He tells them that he has put the M.D. back in the admiral’s starship disarmed and free from threat. However, Quara disagrees. She scolds Peter for bringing the M.D. safely back to the ship, because she thinks that in case the descoladores are a threat, they can have the bomb in handy so that the descoladores will not be in existence to threaten them. But Peter/Ender, learning from his mistakes would not let Quara, or anybody use the bomb to threaten any sentient species. “…we humans are the sentient species that has shown the most tendency to deliberately refuse to communicate with other species and instead destroy them utterly…We are the species that would deserve to die for the safety of all other sentient life.” Then Quara says, “Sounds to me like somebody is trying to earn forgiveness for his own crimes.” “‘And I think you have the same instinctive desire that we all have, the one that gets us in trouble all the time’ says Peter. ‘You know that you’re going to die, and you want to see it all resolved before you do.’… ‘The day may come when all the sentient species reach the conclusion that the descoladores must be destroyed. But I seriously doubt that anybody here, with the exception of Jane, will be alive when that day comes.’”
Symbol: Pin
Political issues
I edited a “Just Say No” pin that would be symbolic to the story because in the story-line, Congress deliberately commits xenocide on the pequeninos when they give out the order to destroy Lusitania. This is not an official law in the Hundred Worlds, but a famous story written and distributed by Ender named The Hive Queen has given the Hundred Worlds a sense of sympathy toward alien races. This book, enormously popular among the Hundred Worlds, also introduces to its readers a concept called xenocide, meaning to exterminate an entire race of aliens; “xeno” meaning alien and “cide” meaning to kill. But because it is not an official law to commit xenocide, Congress sends out the order to destroy the rebel planet nonetheless. They would obviously be hated for it by virtually everybody in the Hundred Worlds, so a pin that people can wear is ideal for a situation like this.
5 New Words 1.Methodology – “And you, Quara – what methodology, exactly, were you planning to use to determine whether the descoladores were too evil to be allowed to live?” Methodology is another word for philosophy or set of principles. 2.Hegemony – “Instead the Japanese will remain aloof from their own hegemony, and in the end it will slip from their hands into someone else’s hands.” Hegemony is a primary influence one nation has over other nations without complete domination. 3.Vilified – “In her life Wang-Mu had been beaten by experts and vilified by champions.” To vilify means to speak ill of. 4.Recidivist – “It was originally as recidivist as Path, clinging on the ancient ways.” Recidivism is to repeat wrongdoing actions. 5.Bushel – “Her barrel of misery has depth to hold a thousand bushels of happiness.” A bushel is a measurement equivalent to about 36 liters.
Resemblance to Existing Works I think the most similar piece of literature it may resemble is the first three episodes of Star Wars. Star Wars involves politics, space travel, human interaction with aliens, and human inhabitation on alien worlds. However, there is much more warfare in Star Wars than in Children of the Mind. It may also remind me of Star Trek because of the concept of teleportation, and the military-theme that is involved in star flight in this movie. I can relate this to the Lusitania Fleet, sent by Congress on a mission to annihilate a rebel planet. Star Trek may also relate to Children of the Mind because the two “future” settings are based off of present day life and politics on Earth, while Star Wars takes place “in a galaxy far, far, away”. Other space operas may also resemble this book in similar ways, but Star Wars and Star Trek are the ones I recognize the best. A futuristic theme that these two space operas do not include is the solution to interplanetary communication. In reality, our communication speed is limited by the speed of light, supposedly unassailable due to the laws of physics. However, in the Ender’s Game saga this issue is resolved by the discovery of instantaneous threads called philotes in which planets and starships communicate via. Without this discovery, it would be impossible for the Hundred Worlds to exist. Frankly, I have never seen any other literature using this concept, which is one reason why I find this book unique.
The book I chose for my first quarter independent reading project is Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card. It is the conclusion to the Ender’s Game series, which I began in the eighth grade. I was about to read the novel anyway, so when I heard about the independent reading project I immediately made up my mind.
Genre Classification
The book I chose may fit into two genres. It may fit in juvenile fiction (or young adult fiction) or it may fit in science fiction. In order for a story to be science fiction it must take place in the future. And this book is science fiction because the book contains futuristic themes; such as alien worlds, alien species, space travel and futuristic technology. But most important of all, this story is dated in the future, which undoubtedly certifies its classification in the science fiction genre. According to the book, the setting of this book takes place over three thousand years in the future.
It may also be young adult fiction because the story was written for a young adult audience. This book’s series was originally marketed for young adults when in Ender’s Game, the first book of the series, the main character was just a child. So this would, by definition, make it a young adult fiction novel. Now, Ender grows old and dies in the book, but his children are now young and healthy and taking the spotlight in the story. And because most of the main characters are now either adolescents or young adults, many adolescents would presumably read this book.
Plot Summary
Starways Congress has sent a fleet to the Portuguese-inhabited planet Lusitania. This fleet, the Lusitania fleet, contains a bomb that will destroy the planet altogether. This Bomb is called the M.D. Device. They sent it because the alien biologists (xenologers) on Lusitania have been teaching the pequeninos, the native inhabitants of the alien world, to use human technology. This was an act of treason, for when the world was colonized, they restricted all contact with the aliens in order to prevent interference with pequenino culture. However, Lusitania contains a deadly virus that adapts to the cures that the biologists try to attack it with by thinking and communicating with the other virus cells of its kind. And worst of all, they cannot kill the virus completely, because the virus is essential for the pequeninos to survive. Therefore, the rebels on Lusitania cannot be prosecuted without spreading the descolada virus to the rest of Congress’ intergalactic empire, the Hundred Worlds. And because the Hundred Worlds controls Lusitania via the ansible communication system, the only way for the Hundred Worlds to lose its grip on Lusitania is if they cut off the ansible.
As the Fleet makes its progress toward Lusitania, the biologists design a permanent cure that disables the descolada’s ability to evolve and communicate with itself. But they don’t have the ingredients on their planet, so they are not able to make it. Next, they use Jane’s power to move them outside of reality so that the biologist may use the design in her head to create the antidote. Miro and Val, while are trying to find habitable worlds for the pequeninos and the buggers to live in, discover the sentient species that created the descolada and seeded it upon planet Lusitania. How do they know the virus was artificial? Throughout their careers, the xenologers have tried to figure out why there were so few variations of species on Lusitania. There are bird-like species, sheep-like species, grass and trees, but the virus allows no subspecies and evolution among the planet, which is why it attacked the humans as soon as they colonized on Lusitania. The answer soon became clear: the descolada was a terraforming project for an alien species. And when they found they found the descoladores, they could not communicate with them.
In addition to those issues, there are still other conflicts in the book. Starways Congress has found Jane hidden within the ansibles, and regards her as a computer virus and a threat to the Hundred Worlds. Therefore, Congress has ordered all planets to turn shut down their ansibles one by one and turn them back on again, in hopes that the ansibles come out virus-free. And as each world shuts down their ansible, Jane loses a portion of processing power available to her. Soon she will lose the power to teleport starships from world to world. Meanwhile, Peter and Wang-mu use what’s left of Jane’s power to stop the order to kill Jane and the order to blow up Lusitania. And if Jane dies, none of them may be able to get back home.
Characters in the Book
Peter – Peter Wiggin in the story comes from Ender’s fear, when Jane moves him Outside reality and back Inside in order to create the cure for the “descolada” virus living on Lusitania, the world they are trying to save. He appears as an adolescent about sixteen years old. The original Peter Wiggin, who has been dead for three thousand years, harassed and haunted Ender as a small child when they were brothers. Thus, Ender’s soul was forever tied to memories of his older brother, Peter. Therefore, Ender conjures up his older brother exactly as he’s been forever imagining him to be: ambitious and evil. And in doing so, he takes a large portion of his soul and unconsciously gives it to this physically young, healthy alter ego of himself. The details on why Peter appeared from Outside is still a mystery, but there is no doubt on where he came from.
Peter ends up having a very important role in the story. Peter makes the decision use Jane’s instantaneous space travel to influence Congress’ decision to destroy Lusitania. He visits a Chinese planet, a Japanese planet, and a Samoan-colonized planet in order to find his answers. And in doing so, they learn their cultures, beliefs, and philosophies so that they can persuade them to use their political status to alter the annihilation of Lusitania. On planet Future Dreaming, Malu tells Peter, “the art of your light that is most savage and strong and selfish burns in you, while the part that is most gentle and loving and which twines with others most powerfully, that is in her…if her part of light went into your vessel, it would soften and gentle you, it would tame you and make you whole. Thus it is good for you if you are the one who becomes whole, leaving the other vessel empty for the god [Jane]” Here he plots the location in which each part of the soul must go in order to save Jane and make Peter whole. Jane must be one with Val’s body while Val and Ender must be one with Peter’s.
Jane – Jane comes from the super-intelligence of the ansible networks that the humans use to communicate with each other instantaneously throughout worlds. By harnessing a computer program the buggers made that responds to actions and makes its own decisions, Jane evolved into an abstract life form capable of deliberately making its own choices and sensing human emotions.
Jane is vital to the alteration of the Lusitania Fleet. Her processing power grows stronger the more ansible networks she is connected to. And she ultimately gains the power to be an anchor for starships to move outside the universe, and then back in. Using this power, she helps Peter and his friend Wang-Mu move from world to world to stop the Lusitania Fleet.
“Then she [Jane] moves everything from the real world to a place of nothingness, which takes no time at all, and then brings it back to reality in whatever place she chooses.”
Ender – Ender Wiggin has been the main character of the series up until this book. Now his two alter egos must take his place as the hero. His soul has been shared to Peter and Valentine; the personalities of his brother and sister from his memory are opposite from each other, in which Ender is directly in between their two qualities. And though he still has his own body and soul intact, the tiny portion of his soul cannot support the body he is currently in. His soul is also vital in order for Jane to instantaneously transport starships. There must be a part of it to support Jane to move these ships, so he, Peter, or Val must be inside the ship for it to be transported. And as Jane dies, she loses the power to transport these ships. Therefore, she needs a body to hold her until the ansible networks turn on again.
“Am I the sum of my two siblings, or am I the difference between them?”
Themes and Big Ideas
Many themes and big ideas can be found in the book Children of the Mind. Probably the most important idea is the idea of a soul or life force. In the book, this is called an aiúa. Outside the universe, Card explains, there are an infinite number of aiúas waiting to be created into something. This is why when Ender is taken Outside, his aiúa is split into three different bodies; his life has been centered on the fact that his brother, Peter, represents the savage, evil part of his aiúa, and his sister, Valentine, represents the caring, loving part of his aiúa. The characters know very little about this concept, but they make lots of guesses and experiments based on what they understand about these aiúas, which is virtually nothing. And (uncannily) most of them end up as expected. For example, Jane’s aiúa moves to Val’s body, as planned, Peter’s body now consists of Ender’s full aiúa, also as planned, and Jane returns to the ansible networks once they are back online. And although Peter does not understand how to consciously harness Ender’s memories hidden inside his aiúa, Peter is still as intelligent as Ender was and has the same philosophies Ender always had.
Another big theme in the story Card teaches the reader is hospitality toward strangers who may or may not be capable of communication. Congress regards the Lusitanians as rebels to the Hundred Worlds because they refuse to understand them. Ender wrote his book The Hive Queen in order to get the humans to reconsider the joy of his bugger extermination. This was an important theme throughout the story, as was the understanding of the aiúa.
One Major Conflict in the Story
One major conflict in the story is near the end when Peter, whose soul is now joined with Ender and Val, comes to help Miro, Jane, and the xenologers, Ela, Ouanda, and Quara, on solving the descoladore language. He tells them that he has put the M.D. back in the admiral’s starship disarmed and free from threat. However, Quara disagrees. She scolds Peter for bringing the M.D. safely back to the ship, because she thinks that in case the descoladores are a threat, they can have the bomb in handy so that the descoladores will not be in existence to threaten them. But Peter/Ender, learning from his mistakes would not let Quara, or anybody use the bomb to threaten any sentient species.
“…we humans are the sentient species that has shown the most tendency to deliberately refuse to communicate with other species and instead destroy them utterly…We are the species that would deserve to die for the safety of all other sentient life.”
Then Quara says, “Sounds to me like somebody is trying to earn forgiveness for his own crimes.”
“‘And I think you have the same instinctive desire that we all have, the one that gets us in trouble all the time’ says Peter. ‘You know that you’re going to die, and you want to see it all resolved before you do.’… ‘The day may come when all the sentient species reach the conclusion that the descoladores must be destroyed. But I seriously doubt that anybody here, with the exception of Jane, will be alive when that day comes.’”
Symbol: Pin
I edited a “Just Say No” pin that would be symbolic to the story because in the story-line, Congress deliberately commits xenocide on the pequeninos when they give out the order to destroy Lusitania. This is not an official law in the Hundred Worlds, but a famous story written and distributed by Ender named The Hive Queen has given the Hundred Worlds a sense of sympathy toward alien races. This book, enormously popular among the Hundred Worlds, also introduces to its readers a concept called xenocide, meaning to exterminate an entire race of aliens; “xeno” meaning alien and “cide” meaning to kill. But because it is not an official law to commit xenocide, Congress sends out the order to destroy the rebel planet nonetheless. They would obviously be hated for it by virtually everybody in the Hundred Worlds, so a pin that people can wear is ideal for a situation like this.
5 New Words
1. Methodology – “And you, Quara – what methodology, exactly, were you planning to use to determine whether the descoladores were too evil to be allowed to live?”
Methodology is another word for philosophy or set of principles.
2. Hegemony – “Instead the Japanese will remain aloof from their own hegemony, and in the end it will slip from their hands into someone else’s hands.”
Hegemony is a primary influence one nation has over other nations without complete domination.
3. Vilified – “In her life Wang-Mu had been beaten by experts and vilified by champions.”
To vilify means to speak ill of.
4. Recidivist – “It was originally as recidivist as Path, clinging on the ancient ways.”
Recidivism is to repeat wrongdoing actions.
5. Bushel – “Her barrel of misery has depth to hold a thousand bushels of happiness.”
A bushel is a measurement equivalent to about 36 liters.
Resemblance to Existing Works
I think the most similar piece of literature it may resemble is the first three episodes of Star Wars. Star Wars involves politics, space travel, human interaction with aliens, and human inhabitation on alien worlds. However, there is much more warfare in Star Wars than in Children of the Mind. It may also remind me of Star Trek because of the concept of teleportation, and the military-theme that is involved in star flight in this movie. I can relate this to the Lusitania Fleet, sent by Congress on a mission to annihilate a rebel planet. Star Trek may also relate to Children of the Mind because the two “future” settings are based off of present day life and politics on Earth, while Star Wars takes place “in a galaxy far, far, away”. Other space operas may also resemble this book in similar ways, but Star Wars and Star Trek are the ones I recognize the best. A futuristic theme that these two space operas do not include is the solution to interplanetary communication. In reality, our communication speed is limited by the speed of light, supposedly unassailable due to the laws of physics. However, in the Ender’s Game saga this issue is resolved by the discovery of instantaneous threads called philotes in which planets and starships communicate via. Without this discovery, it would be impossible for the Hundred Worlds to exist. Frankly, I have never seen any other literature using this concept, which is one reason why I find this book unique.
Goodreads review link:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31360.Children_of_the_Mind
Quarter 2 Glog